Can
I pray for you in any way?
Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
In Christ, Mark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** Follow The Christian Walk
on Twitter @ThChristianWalk
** Like posts and send friend
requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at
https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn
** Become a Follower of The
Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Anyone who knows me will
understand why I might have a fixation with acronyms. After all, twenty eight
and a half years of serving in the Navy will expose you to more than a few.
Given this, I’ve been called
by the Holy Spirit to write this devotion based on an acronym of the word
“thanks”. Each letter of the word will offer a reason to have gratitude toward
our Lord, not only during this holiday season but every day. Let’s get started
with the letter “T” and move through every letter thereafter, looking at verses
from the Word of God that encourage us to adopt an attitude of gratitude.
T = TRUSTWORTHINESS
Sovereign Lord, you are God! Your covenant is
trustworthy. 2 Samuel 7:28
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise
the simple. Psalm 19:7
The Lord is trustworthy in all He promises and
faithful in all He does. Psalm 145:13
How many people have let you
down in your life when you trusted them?
I don’t know about you but I
lost count a long time ago.
This is why it’s so critical
to have a relationship with the One who never fails His children. Ever.
We find Samuel proclaiming
the trustworthiness of our sovereign God, understanding that the Lord’s
covenant is one that can be relied on. David, the master psalmist, is in
agreement with Samuel because indeed, the Lord never breaks His promises and He
has made many of them in the scriptures. One need only read their Bible to see
that.
King David also talks of how
we, the simple, can expect to gain wisdom when we choose to follow the Lord’s
guidance and direction because both are grounded in trustworthiness. The Lord
has never and will never lead His people astray when they rely on Him, and we
can put our faith in this truth.
Finally, we read from David’s
words that the Lord is faithful in all He does. Note that David doesn’t say
that the Lord is faithful in most of the things He does. No, our Lord is
faithful in ALL He does. We can always have faith and trust in Him because He
and He alone is perfectly faithful and trustworthy.
H = HOPEFULNESS
God will never forget the needy; the hope of the
afflicted will never perish. Psalm 9:18
You answer us with awesome and righteous deeds, God
our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas.
Psalm 65:5
Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from
Him. Psalm 62:5
Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God. Psalm 146:5
Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they
will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40:31
I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord,
“plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Jeremiah 29:11
The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the
one who seeks Him. Lamentations 3:25
Everything that was written in the past was written to
teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the
encouragement they provide we might have hope. Romans 15:4
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as
you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy
Spirit. Romans 15:13
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 1 Peter 1:3
As you can see, there are
many scriptures that speak to the reassurance and hope we have in our Lord. In
fact, hope is what buoys us up and keeps us afloat in a life where the world
seems to want to drag us below the surface to drown in our circumstances.
For the afflicted, the
scriptures assure us that their hope will never perish. This is because the
Lord Himself will never perish. As long as we have the Lord, we have hope, a
hope no one else can provide.
When we’re in the midst of
weakness, the prophet Isaiah reminds us that all we need to do is hope in the
Lord so that our strength might be renewed. His hope alone can help the feeble
soar on wings like eagles.
For those who are troubled in
life, the scriptures offer assurance that through the Lord’s hope, their souls
can find rest, peace, encouragement, and even joy. The scriptures breed
perseverance within us as we read about the trustworthy promises of our God. Indeed,
the Lord IS good to those who seek Him and place their hope in His hands.
And for those of us who are struggling
to make sense of our life and where it might be heading, the Lord speaks words
of hope into our hearts and minds. Through the prophet Jeremiah, He promises
that He knows the plans He has for us. All we need to do is trust Him and why
wouldn’t we want to do that because He wants us to prosper, be free from harm,
and have a hope for our future.
Finally, the primary
instrument of our promised “future hope” is Jesus Christ, God’s only Son who He
sent to give us a new birth into a living hope, one that assures all
Christ-followers that they will overcome death and the grave when this life
ends, joining God and Jesus forever. Through the hope found in Jesus, the final
chapter of your life’s story has already been written and it’s the happiest
ending ever. All you have to do is place your hope and trust in Him as Savior,
given to save you from the penalty of Hell by a loving, trustworthy God.
A = ABUNDANCE
Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; His
greatness no one can fathom. One generation commends Your works to another;
they tell of Your mighty acts. They speak of the glorious splendor of Your
majesty—and I will meditate on Your wonderful works. They tell of the power of
Your awesome works—and I will proclaim Your great deeds. They celebrate Your
abundant goodness and joyfully sing of Your righteousness. Psalm 145:3-7
How abundant are the good things that You have stored
up for those who fear You, that You bestow in the sight of all, on those who
take refuge in You. Psalm 31:19
God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all
things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good
work. 2 Corinthians 9:8
Think about where we are
today in the scope of the dawn of mankind. We are countless generations from
the first couple, Adam and Eve, and yet, we still live and learn and love, and
do so abundantly because of a Lord who provides.
God is good. We hear people
proclaim it all the time here in the 21st century but it’s definitely not a
modern day expression. Rather, it has been proclaimed for the ages as people
experience the remarkable, amazing, copious goodness of God first-hand. Indeed,
His power, majesty, and glory are always on display. All we need to do is open
our eyes and take in the creation around us for only an omnipotent Creator
could craft the abundant nature of what we see and experience in our world.
Going back to the Psalms, we
find David proclaiming that the Lord has good things stored up for those who
revere and respect Him. The apostle Paul shares this sentiment asserting that
God always looks out for the good of those who love Him, those called according
to His purpose (Romans 8:28). So trust the Lord, place Your hope in Him, and an
abundance of goodness will be yours. He will bless you plentifully so you will
have all you need to abound in the works He calls you to do, and that is
definitely reason to give thanks.
N = NEWNESS
If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The
old has gone, the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17
We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into
death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory
of the Father, we too may live a new life. Romans 6:4
I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no
one will take your crown. The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the
temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name
of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is
coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them My new
name. Revelation 5:11-12
I often think about my life
before Jesus. It wasn’t pretty.
Like so many others, past and
present, I thought I could captain my own vessel and navigate through life
successfully. What I learned is the more I was holding onto my will and way,
the more I was completely lousing things up and running aground. Something
needed changing and I needed newness.
Enter Christ Jesus who
brought the words of Paul to life in me, making me a new creation from the
moment I asked Him into my life and accepted Him as my personal Savior. In a
moment, the former me was in the past and I was now embarking on an exciting
journey that I’m still on this very day, a journey that is not just for the now
but forever. Once dead in my sin, I was now assured of life, a resurrection
life that would allow me to be with Jesus and His Father God eternally. Jesus
wrote on me a new name, one that would mark me as His, a future resident of the
new Jerusalem that will come down from the new heavens and be found on the new
earth when Christ returns (Revelation 21:1-2).
Let us give thanks for the
newness we find in our Lord.
K = KNOWLEDGE
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
Proverbs 1:7
The Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge
and understanding. Proverbs 2:6
Ask God to fill you with the knowledge of His will
through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may
live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way: bearing fruit in
every good work, growing in the knowledge of God. Colossians 1:9-10
Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 3:18
Where would we be without the
Bible and God’s breathed out, inspired words within (2 Timothy 3:16-17)?
Well, for starters, we would
be left to a life of ignorance and foolishness, a life void of wisdom.
I give thanks that I can
learn something new and fresh, every time I read my Bible, even from passages I
may have read many times before. It’s amazingly awesome to me that the Lord always
brings new levels of understanding to me. Maybe you can relate.
The great news is that this Holy
Word of the Lord is available to anyone who would want it. A person can choose
to receive or reject it and those who turn away from it, do so because they
lack any kind of respect or reverence for their Master and Maker, the Author of
the Word. Therefore, knowledge never really gets started with them for only
from the Lord’s mouth do we receive legitimate understanding and wisdom
(Proverbs 3:5-6).
We need to receive this
offering of divine knowledge with gratitude because it helps us bear good
fruits in our life, a life that is worthy of the Lord and pleasing to Him in
every way. And it’s this kind of life that leads us to a spirit of everlasting
thanksgiving unto the Lord who imparts all we need to know about Him and the
plan He has for each of us, a plan that leads to the final letter and its representative
word.
S = SALVATION
Jesus is “‘the stone you builders rejected, which has
become the cornerstone.’ Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no
other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” Acts
4:11-12
For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to
receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Mankind has received no
greater gift from God than His Son Jesus. Anything else pales in comparison and
even gifts we might mention as runner ups are all connected to what we have
because of Jesus. Every good and perfect thing is in and of Him.
Indeed, God made a
trustworthy promise when He loved the world so much that He was willing to
offer up Christ Jesus, His only Son, so no person would perish but rather have
the opportunity to live forever (John 3:16). The fulfillment of that promise is
what offers us newness in Jesus and an abundant hope that no one can take away.
We have this knowledge because God provided it through the scriptures.
Yes, we end this T.H.A.N.K.S.
acronym message with salvation, the promise of living forever through Jesus,
because God always saves the best for last and I pray that we all will put it
at the top of our list of things to be grateful for, not just on Thanksgiving,
but every day of every month of every year that the Lord provides in this life
until He ushers us into the one to come.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone
and blessings to you always!
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a
comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send
any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
